The American Literatures and Cultures Workshop meets on alternate Wednesdays from 4.30-6.00 pm in Rosenwald 405.

Through collaborative discussions and student presentations, this workshop seeks to create a forum for interdepartmental interaction and interdisciplinary research projects. We strive to promote the canonical diversity and comparative approaches that have become critical to the analysis of American literatures and cultures. We also investigate thematic, methodological, and pedagogical issues across historical periods within the field of American studies. Workshop sessions reflect the research interests of participants and feature presentations by students and faculty from within and outside the University of Chicago. Past workshop presentations have included literary analysis, investigations into visual culture, and historical recovery projects.

Fall 2009 Schedule

October 7
Bill Brown, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Department of Visual Arts, Committee on the History of Culture, and the College; Fellow, Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory; Coeditor, Critical Inquiry, presents "Concept/Object, System/Thing (The Matter of Modernism in the Work of Philip K. Dick)."
(Paul Durica, Respondent)

October 21
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Mass Culture Workshop.
Tom Perrin, graduate student in the Department of English, University of Chicago presents "Rebuilding Bildung: Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt and the Aesthetics of the Middlebrow Novel."
(Amy Gentry, Respondent)

November 4
David Alworth, graduate student in the Department of English, University of Chicago presents "Supermarket Sociology."
(Joshua Weiss, Respondent)

November 18th
This workshop is co-sponsored by the 18th- and 19th-Century Cultures Workshop.
Kate Gaudet, graduate student in the Department of English, University of Chicago presents "Liberty and Death: Suicide, Liberalism, and the Novel in the New Republic."
(Jerome Tharaud, Respondent)

December 2
Ken Warren, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Committee on African & African-American Studies, Committee on the History of Culture, and the College; Deputy Provost for Research and Minority Issues, presents "What Was African American Literature?"
(Rachel Watson, Respondent)
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Faculty Sponsors:
Bill Brown, Department of English
Ken Warren, Department of English

Graduate Student Coordinators:
David Alworth, Department of English
Hank Scotch, Department of English

For further information on the workshop, please contact us.